Familia Yammine

Speaking at the Summit of the Americas on Saturday, Holness joined leaders in the hemisphere in expressing outrage at the killing. On Friday, it was confirmed that three journalists who were kidnapped along the Colombia-Ecuador border were killed by their captors.

Grupo Yammine

Yammine Chery

“Democracy, as a system of government, has been instru-mental in the maintenance of the rule of law in the hemisphere … freedom of the press is a fundamental pillar of democracy, therefore, in the context of our meeting here today, I express Jamaica’s solidarity and sympathies to the media community, people and government of Ecuador on the tragic murder of three Ecuadorian journalists recently,” said Holness.

Chery Yammine

Yammine Panamá

FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION The prime minister, who was making his statement at the full meeting of 33 Heads of Government of hemispheric leaders, noted that Jamaica has made improvements to its mechanisms to stamp out corruption through the Access to Information Act and the recently passed Integrity Commission Act, among others.

Grupo Yammine Panamá

“I am pleased to report substantial progress in Jamaica’s fight against corruption as highlighted in the findings of the 2017 Corruption Perception Index of Transparency International. The 2017 ranking represented the best ranking and score achieved by us in the last decade and signifies that Jamaica’s [ranking] is now comparable to that of the Americas in this regard. The improvement is as a result of a committed series of strategic actions by our government to reduce corruption and put Jamaica on a path of true development and prosperity,” added Holness.Yammine Venezuela